September 5, 2014
Dear Everyone:
I have been as busy as a little bee this week.
ARMA, of course.
Each month we hold a Chapter Meeting at a restaurant in
Walnut Creek.
The meeting consists of a brief period before dinner for
“networking” (also known as “glad-handing” and “gossiping”); then the
Program (i.e., someone who speaks knowledgeably about something vaguely
related to Records and Information Management) and dinner.
It used to be dinner, then the Speaker.
But one time a Speaker needed to leave early enough for his son’s
baseball game, so he asked if he could talk while everyone was eating.
It went so well that we instantly declared it a “tradition” and
have been doing it that way ever since.
The Speaker gives his/her presentation while we eat, then the
Speaker either eats afterward, or takes his/her dinner “To Go”.
And everyone gets out an hour earlier.
Last week our Webmaster, “Clancy”, added this month’s program to the
site, including a link to the “Registration Page”.
“Clancy” had set up this page some years ago, a simple little
database that provided the user with spaces for name, company,
email
address and the menu selection for that meeting (beef, chicken or fish.)
This information was forwarded, via email, to the Treasurer, the
Hospitality Director, and me.
That way, the Treasurer knew who to make the receipts out to; the
Hospitality Director let the restaurant know how many beef, chickens and
fish to prepare; and I knew who to expect.
I also put all the information into a spreadsheet to track who
came to which meetings. This
might prove helpful some time in the future.
The Registration Page also allowed the user to charge the dinner to
their credit card using PayPal, should they so choose.
This meant the attendee paid up front and didn’t have to remember
to bring cash, or a checkbook, to the meeting.
It also meant that people who registered for the program, then
changed their minds at the last minute, had already paid and our
Treasurer didn’t have to hound them for the cost of the dinner, which
the restaurant sort of expected to get.
However, “Clancy” had indicated in the past that he wasn’t real happy
with the way PayPal was managing these credit card charges.
He was looking for an alternative.
As soon as “Clancy” let us know that this month’s Program was available
on the Website, I went ahead and registered, choosing the beef dish this
time. A day later, I
realized that I hadn’t received the usual email with my information on
it.
So I contacted “Clancy” and that’s sort of when we found out that
“Clancy” had decided to change the whole thing and get away from PayPal.
He wanted to use a system called “Eventbrite” instead.
I’d used Eventbrite in the past, when I ordered tickets for the annual
Academy Awards Benefit.
Eventbrite was established, in part, by one of the people who previously
ran PayPal. Evidently,
“Clancy” wasn’t the only one who was fed up.
A lot of organizations are using it now.
The system takes care of registration and the credit card
charges, taking a tiny little portion for itself.
It even sends the person who is registering an email with the
“ticket”, date and time and even a link to a web-based mapping
application if they want directions to the event.
It also sent me (and, presumably the Treasurer and Hospitality Director)
emails with copies of the tickets, so we would know who was coming.
However, it didn’t allow the person registering to select the
meal choice, something the restaurant really needs to know in advance.
So there’s been a whole, spirited email “conversation” going on about
allowing meal choices and showing them on the emails being sent out by
the system. And a whole lot
of other things.
In the meantime, as the (newly inaugurated) Chapter President, it was
part of my job to send out an announcement about this month’s meeting,
hopefully inspiring people to sign up and come.
I had copied one that our previous President had sent out and
used it as a kind of “template”, not knowing at the time about
“Clancy’s” little change.
Made a separate copy, then stripped out the old material and put in the
new material. This usually
consisted of the date, Speaker and Program (subject of the Speaker’s
presentation.) Everything
else stayed the same.
Except for “Clancy’s” little change.
Suddenly the Registration Page was a whole new system.
And confused people were replying to my original email to ask
what was happening.
And much merriment ensued.
Of course, only a handful of people have actually paid any attention to
the announcement. The
meeting itself is nearly three weeks away.
So we’ll see what happens when I send out the traditional
reminder in a couple of weeks.
Stay tuned…
Love, as always,
Pete
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